Upgrade from VB 6 - Problem with MSFlexGrid 1

[StevenK]

I'm not familiar with VB or VB.NET.
I was given some project code by a colleague for an application one of his employees wrote a couple of years ago - developed in VB6.0 against a SQL Server 7.0 database.
I suggested I would attempt to open and review the source code within the .NET evironment. All appeared to be going OK - it recognised that the project and source files were developed in VB and set up about stepping me through the upgrade wizard (to upgrade to VB.NET) but then presented us with an error indicating that there was a problem upgrading the source for MSFlexGrid - I've since determined that this is a Microsoft grid component.
How can I complete this upgrade process ?
Can I download this component / source from MS so that I can review the project source and look at possibly maintaining it for them ?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Steve

 

[RiverGuy]

If you don't have VB 6 installed on your machine, you probably do not have the component installed. One way to get it might be to have your colleague create a setup package for that app that the code is from, and install it on your machine. It should register the FlexGrid component. Now whether it will work for development, I have no idea.

 

[StevenK]

I've run a setup program that he supplied me with which installed a lot of the required VB .dlls. Before I had done this the application executable failed to run at all - so this was a neccessary.
The application operates OK so the MSFlexGrid component does not fail when I try to use the various forms.
Am I able to obtain a version of this component for VB.NET ?
Alternatively should I look at installing VB6.0 (risking an install alongside the existing .NET installation) such that all required files are available to me ?
Can anyone suggest my best port of call with this.
Steve

 

[RiverGuy]

Did you check COM and see if it is listed as something to add?

 

[StevenK]

Could you enlighten me as to how I might do this ?
I'm guessing I'd need to add the COM object through means of a reference ?
I'm not even able to open the project file itself due to this issue with the failure in the upgrade from VB6.0 to VB.NET.
How might I work around this ?

Thanks again for the help so far.
Steve

 

[RiverGuy]

You cannot open it at all? That's interesting. I once tried to upgrade a J++ project to a J#, and wound up with almost 100 errors and was still able to open it.

Yeah, if you can get it open somehow, go to project, references, COM tab, and look for MS Flex Grid. I just checked mine, and I had MS Flex Grid 6.0.

 

[StevenK]

The project won't open for trying.
It recognises it is a project and walks me through the upgrade wizard steps but fails at the fifth hurdle (page 5 of 5 in the wizard) and gives me the message :
'Upgrade failed: Exception occured. The referenced component MSFlexGrid is missing a design time license'.

What am I missing here ?

Steve

 

[RiverGuy]

That seems to me that you might have to have VB6 installed. That's probably why it is available in my .Net IDE to make reference to.

Beware though--I have heard from others--some at this forum that installing VB 6 after .Net doesn't work too well.

Were you set in stone on using a Flex Grid? Were you planning on rewriting the code at all? Or did you want to run the wizard, try to upgrade it, and go?

If you wanted to do some work, I would recommend getting access to a VB6 machine and removing the Flex Grid reference.

Then try to import it and use another type of component instead. That's what I would do. What all did they use the flex grid to accomplish functinally? I would think about sticking to .Net components if it's possible.

 

[StevenK]

Has hoped to run the wizard and run with it.
Doesn't look like this can be done.
I'll consider looking at using a different machine to open the project with VB6 and see if I can replace the use of the grid component.
I'm not familiar with VB6.0 or VB.Net (have Visual Studio .NET due to my work with C#) so either way I've got some learning ahead of me.
Thanks for the assist so far - you are (and deserve) a star.

Steve

 

[RiverGuy]

Thanks man, I appreciate it. Although if you know C# already, you should be able to work your way around either VB, being that they all support drage and drop controls